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Golf’s Pan Am debut a dry run for Olympic return

Both the PGA and LPGA will break for the Olympics next summer in Rio de Janeiro, which ensures the big names will participate. Those tours don’t halt for the Pan Am Games.

Lorie Kane is willing to skip a tour event at this point in her career for the chance to play in the Pan Am Games. (Geoff Robins / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Donna SpencerThe Canadian Press

Tues., July 7, 2015

How will the lone-wolf lifestyle of a professional golfer fit into the behemoth of a multi-sport Games? Canada’s Lorie Kane is about to find out.

Golf will make its Pan American Games debut in Toronto. LPGA veteran Kane of Charlottetown is the host country’s headliner now that teen sensation Brooke Henderson has bowed out.

For Golf Canada, and for Kane should she be named to the Canadian team again, the Pan Ams are also a rehearsal for the sport’s return to the Olympics in 2016. Golf was on the Olympic menu only in the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis.

Both the PGA and LPGA will break for the Olympics next summer in Rio de Janeiro, which ensures the big names will participate.

Those tours don’t halt for the Pan Am Games. Canada’s top male pro Graeme DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., will play in the British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland, instead of the Pan Am tournament July 16-19 at Angus Glen in Markham, Ont.

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Kane, 50, is the veteran of a Canadian team that includes male amateurs Austin Connelly, an 18-year-old dual citizen from Irving, Tex., and Garrett Rank, a 28-year-old from Elmira, Ont.

Henderson, from Smiths Falls, Ont., withdrew from the Canadian team to play in the LPGA’s Marathon Classic in Ohio. The 17-year-old is anxious to get her pro career underway. Golf Canada has yet to name her replacement on the Pan Am team.

Kane has never skipped the Marathon Classic until now.

“At this point in my career, missing a week on tour to have an opportunity to play in the Pan Am Games was something I didn’t think twice about,” Kane said. “The idea that I’ve been chosen to play in the Pan Am Games is a real shot in the arm for me. I don’t know that you can find a prouder Canadian than myself.”

In an individual sport like golf, the pros control their competition, practice and travel schedules. PGA and LPGA regulars stay in four- and five-star hotels.

The men’s Canadian Open has given complimentary vehicles to the top golfers in the field to come and go as they please.

In a multi-sport Games, it’s dormitory-style living, cafeteria food, waiting in lines, riding buses and operating on a team’s schedule. Kane is ready to give up some personal freedom to stay in the athletes village.

“If I don’t, then personally I feel I’ve missed out on an experience,” she said. “I want to experience it all, or do the best I can, on top of playing some good golf.”

Kane is a four-time winner on the LPGA Tour, but wants to raise her world ranking from 364th in order to be considered for the Olympic team.

“I looked at things over the last couple years and said ‘I need something to really dig my heels into’ and it was the idea that I could challenge myself to improve my world ranking so I would have a chance to play for Canada,” she explained. “That’s been a driving force behind my 6 a.m. workouts and the uncomfortable pains I feel in my hip every once in awhile, but I just keep going.”

Regardless of who plays for Canada in Rio, the Pan Ams provide a critical run-through for Golf Canada’s coaches and support staff. Their job is to prepare the athletes for the unfamiliar environment and shepherd them to medal-worthy performances.

“It’s great having the Pan Am Games 12 months before Rio,” chief sport officer Jeff Thompson said. “We really want to use that as a dry run for our support team.

“How do the players manage living in the village? Do they like it, do they not? Our support staff, do we have the right people there? Do we need different people there?”

The Pan Am field includes 32 women and 32 men. The tournament features a mixed team event, which is not in the Olympics, in addition to the men’s and women’s tournaments.

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